Tips for meal planning

I am naturally a planner and I love to have my schedule organized.  So, it is not surprise that I love having a plan for my meals too.   It makes life so much easier during the week if I know what I am eating each evening.  I wanted to share what my routine looks like and I hope it will help you.  I have found that this is the best way for me to eat healthy and when I plan, I usually stick to it.  Have you ever heard the saying, “If You Fail to Plan, You Plan to Fail”?  It is so true.  When I don’t plan, I end up eating something unhealthy.  When I plan my meals, I always end up eating them because I already bought everything and I don’t like money and food being wasted.  Anyway, here are my tips for having a successful week of meal planning!

1. Plan your whole week! I sit down every Sunday and plan out my week.  I create a meal plan for each day of the week all the way through the following Sunday.  I grocery shop on Sunday’s and Wednesday’s.  I am usually buying a lot of produce and fresh ingredients so I have to head to the store at least twice a week.  This also helps if something unexpectedly changes and we change our plan, I don’t have tons of groceries to throw out.  Nothing gets wasted because I can shift meals or I won’t purchase ingredients if I haven’t already been to the store for a meal.

2. Find new recipes and use old ones.  I have tried meal planning and tried using brand new recipe every night and that can be so tiring.  Don’t get me wrong, I love trying and creating new recipes, but doing it every night can get overwhelming.  Now, I only allow one or maybe two new recipes each week and then recycle through some of my favorites.

3. Allow a night out to eat.  We eat out once a week!  It doesn’t have to be anything expensive, but it just allows one night where I don’t have to cook a meal and clean up a mess!  

4. Schedule a night that requires little work.  If you know you have a crazy day and you are going to exhausted, plan a meal that you can throw in the Crock-Pot ahead of time or plan a meal that is a little amount of work for you.  

5. Always have a few backup meals.  Sometimes things go wrong and it is nice to have something to fall back on.  I keep a frozen pizza around most of the time for those nights that things don’t work out as planned or ingredients for bean burritos.  Whatever your go-to quick meal is, keep it on hand.

Do you have any tips to share about how you plan for your week?  I’d love to know! Please share below!